Technical Instructor, Cloud & DevOps Support (4 Week Assignment)

Job Title: Technical Instructor, Cloud & DevOps Support (Temporary)

Department: Technical Programs

Status/FLSA: Temporary, Hourly

Reports to: Vice President, Talent Operations

Compensation: $75/hour

Location: In-person at a client office in downtown St. Louis, MO. Candidates must live in the St. Louis area.

Engagement: Approximately 4 weeks of full-time, in-person instruction (up to 8 hours per day, 160 instructional hours), as early as December 2026 – January 2027. Please apply even if you don't meet 100% of the job requirements.

Job Summary:

The Technical Instructor, Cloud & DevOps Support at LaunchCode connects talent to opportunity by leading an intensive, four-week cohort that prepares about 20 employees of an employer partner to move from geospatial roles into tier-2 technical support. Teaching in person at the partner's downtown St. Louis office, the Technical Instructor takes adult learners with little or no infrastructure background to a working understanding of Linux, Git, networking, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, CI/CD and GitOps in 160 hours.

The work is hands-on: labs, troubleshooting practice and realistic support scenarios built from the partner's own logs, tickets and runbooks.

The Technical Instructor tracks every learner's progress, provides weekly updates to the program team, and produces the ranked results and written strengths-and-gaps summaries the partner will use to decide who advances. This role suits an experienced cloud infrastructure practitioner who can explain complex systems to someone seeing them for the first time and who wants to help adult learners change careers in a matter of weeks.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Deliver the full four-week, 160-hour curriculum (designed by LaunchCode) in person, up to 8 hours per day, using a mix of direct instruction, lab work, troubleshooting practice, Q&A and assessment
• Teach Linux and Git fundamentals: filesystem navigation, processes, system and application logs, permissions and ownership, exit codes and error output, commits, branches and remotes
• Teach networking and containers: the client-server model, IP addresses, ports and DNS, network testing utilities, containers versus virtual machines, and running, inspecting and debugging Docker containers
• Teach Kubernetes and AWS: desired state and reconciliation, pods, deployments, services and nodes, kubectl troubleshooting (CrashLoopBackOff, Pending, ImagePullBackOff), IAM roles and policies, and how EKS relates to EC2 and AWS identity
• Teach delivery and troubleshooting: CI/CD pipeline stages and failed-job analysis, GitOps concepts, Argo CD application states, and structured investigation of simulated tier-2 tickets and runbooks
• Lead hands-on labs in the provided lab environment, using the partner's mock logs, tickets and runbooks to mirror real tier-2 support work
• Explain technical concepts in plain language, emphasizing understanding over memorization, so learners can both perform a task and explain why it works
• Adjust pacing and provide individual support for adult learners with varied technical backgrounds, keeping all learners progressing on a compressed timeline
• Direct the work of the cohort's teaching assistant during labs and troubleshooting practice
• Track each learner's progress on hands-on exercises and supply weekly progress data to the LaunchCode program manager for partner updates
• Score learners, produce a ranked list of all learners, and write a short summary of each learner's strengths and gaps
• Coordinate with the LaunchCode program manager on schedules, attendance and reporting
• Represent LaunchCode professionally on site at the employer partner's office

Required Skills/Abilities:

Technical

• Fluency on the Linux command line: filesystem navigation, process inspection and control, log locations and formats, file permissions and ownership, exit codes and stderr
• Working knowledge of Git: repositories, commits, branches, remotes, and Git as a source of truth
• Solid networking fundamentals: client-server model, IP addressing, ports, DNS, and tools such as ping, curl, dig/nslookup, traceroute and netcat
• Hands-on Docker skills: images, tags, registries, running containers, port mapping, inspecting state, reading logs and exec'ing into containers
• Hands-on Kubernetes skills: core objects (pods, deployments, services, nodes), kubectl inspection and log retrieval, reading pod events, and diagnosing CrashLoopBackOff, Pending and ImagePullBackOff
• Working knowledge of AWS, including IAM roles and policies (identity-based versus resource-based), EC2 and EKS, and how pods obtain AWS permissions
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and the ability to diagnose failed jobs from their output
• Understanding of GitOps principles and Argo CD application states (synced, out of sync, healthy, degraded)
• A structured troubleshooting method: establishing the symptom, isolating the failing layer, supporting a cause with evidence, and knowing when to escalate

Non-technical

• Exceptional ability to explain complex technical concepts in plain language to learners with no prior infrastructure background
• Strong classroom presence and the stamina to lead full-day, in-person instruction for four consecutive weeks
• Skill in reading a room: spotting confused or disengaged learners quickly and adjusting pacing or approach
• Sound, fair judgment in evaluating learner performance against defined criteria, with clear, objective written feedback
• Clear written communication for weekly progress input and per-learner summaries
• Patience and empathy for adult learners making a significant career change under time pressure
• Professionalism and discretion when working on site at a client's office and handling learner performance information

Required Experience:

• Experience directing and developing education programs for adult learners. On-the-job or corporate trainer experience accepted.
• 4+ years of professional, hands-on experience in DevOps, site reliability, cloud infrastructure, systems administration or a similar technical role
• 2+ years of hands-on experience operating or troubleshooting containerized workloads with Docker and Kubernetes
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with AWS, including IAM and at least one of EC2 or EKS
• Hands-on experience working with or supporting CI/CD pipelines
• 2+ years of experience teaching, training or mentoring adults in technical subjects (for example bootcamp instruction, corporate technical training, or structured onboarding of engineers or support staff)
• Experience evaluating learner or team-member performance and providing written feedback

Preferred Experience:

• Experience in a tier-2 (or higher) technical support, escalation or on-call role, including writing or following runbooks
• Hands-on experience with GitOps workflows and Argo CD
• Experience teaching intensive, accelerated programs (for example coding bootcamps or multi-week corporate upskilling cohorts)
• Experience teaching career changers or learners moving from non-infrastructure roles into technical roles
• Relevant certifications such as AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner or Solutions Architect, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), or Linux Foundation certifications

Physical Requirements/Travel Requirements:

• Must reside in the St. Louis area and be able to work on site at a client office in downtown St. Louis for the full engagement
• Prolonged periods of standing, presenting and moving around a classroom to support learners during labs, alternating with periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Visual acuity for focusing on computer screens, projected displays and documents, as well as manual dexterity for operating standard office and presentation equipment
• Occasional lifting of light to moderate objects up to 15 pounds
• No travel outside the St. Louis area is expected

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

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